NEW DELHI: AT least 106 homeless people have died in the city between January 1-19 due to the biting cold, an NGO has claimed in a letter to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and urged him to make proper arrangements for them during winters.
Citing official data, NGO Centre for Holistic Development (CHD) said the number of homeless people far outstrips the capacity of existing night shelters in Delhi.
As per the latest Shelter Homes Occupancy Report of Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the total capacity of the shelter homes has been revised to 9,330 from the original capacity of 19,964. This has forced the homeless to spend the nights on the streets bearing the harsh weather, it said.
“We are distributing sleeping bags and arranging accommodation for the homeless. We take them to the nearby night shelters,” said Sunil Kumar Aledia, founder of CHD.
He suggested departments such as the Women and Child Development Department to work in coordination with the DUSIB to ensure the welfare of the homeless people.
Delhi based Wishes and Blessings is another NGO active in providing winter essentials to the underprivileged. It distributes winter relief items to the homeless in three states — Delhi/NCR, Jharkhand
and West Bengal.